Although I can’t respond to every blog response to my “Losing My Religion” and subsequent posts, I do want to include the comment I left over on OSV Daily Take this morning because this is my former blog home and because OSV is still family to me. I feel I owe it to them to be sure people see that post and my response to it. (more…)
“I want to tell you something. What is it that I expect as a consequence of World Youth Day? I want a mess. We knew that in Rio there would be great disorder, but I want trouble in the dioceses! I want to see the church get closer to the people. I want to get rid of clericalism, the mundane, this closing ourselves off within ourselves, in our parishes, schools or structures. Because these need to get out!” — Pope Francis said at World Youth Day, ending his talk with an off-the-cuff-remark reported by AP, “Don’t forget: make trouble.”
And so I am. Consider it tough love. Really, that above quote, and perhaps the reminder that Jesus himself turned over tables in the temple, are all I need to continue saying what I’m saying without fear and without doubt. (more…)
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” – John 1:1-5
Over and over yesterday, in response to my “Losing My Religion” post, many people tried to convince me that a bad liturgy shouldn’t matter all that much in my faith life. Some who don’t know me very well — or at all — assumed (wrongly) that one or two bad homilies had sent me running. All that matters is the Eucharist, they said. And, I’ll give you this, the only reason I stayed seated in that church this weekend is because of the Eucharist. I would have been out the door before the homily was even close to over if not for that, but are we really going to pretend that the Word doesn’t matter? Because it does. (more…)
Oh, no I’ve said too much. I haven’t said enough…
I almost walked out of Mass in the middle last night. Seriously. And I was not in my own parish so don’t try to figure out where I was. But it doesn’t really matter where I was because, from what I can tell, what I experienced yesterday is a universal problem, as in Universal Church. (more…)
Banned Book Week starts tomorrow, September 22, and I would like to personally encourage you to find your most favorite banned book and read it again. What? You don’t think any books you like would be on the banned book list? Think again. I can’t count up all the books I love that have been on this list at one time or another, from the obvious (Lady Chatterley’s Lover) to the ridiculous (the entire Harry Potter series) and all sorts of great books in between. (more…)
